ABSTRACT
The capacity of the restraint of trade doctrine (ROTD) to protect is further enhanced by its test which insists that "restraints of trade" must be justified by the restraining party as being reasonable. This chapter highlights the capacity of the ROTD to resist the enforcement by the restricting party of a wide variety of restrictions on individuals. It argues that the public policy derived versatility of the ROTD should ensure its on-going importance in the modern economy where individual's economic freedom is restricted by innovative arrangements, especially ones which are difficult to resist under employment legislation or competition legislation. The chapter focuses on the boundaries of ROTD and interrogates its usefulness to persons who are not traditional employees. The ROTD takes a sterner attitude to post-termination restrictions in employment agreements than to post-termination restrictions in agreements for the sale of business.
